The fourteenth-century controversy between the Dominican Durandus of St Pour ain and his order plays a central role in explaining the later success of Thomism. Durandus's independent approach earned him two censures from Dominican authorities, as he appeared to jeopardize the order's sense of doctrinal identity. Through a close examination of the relevant theological issues, this book follows the course of the controversy to reveal the significant role which Franciscan theology played in the Dominican interpretation of Aquinas. This challenges the commonplace portrayal of early Thomists as a homogenous group, as it reveals the Franciscan contribution to the shaping of a Dominican intellectual tradition.

Isabel Iribarren is Junior Research Fellow in Theology, St John's College, Oxford.

• I. The doctrinal and philosophical background


• 1: Prolegomena: the Fourth Lateran Council and its tradition


• 2: Aquinas on the Trinity


• 3: Varieties of distinction


• II. The controversy


• 4: Hervaeus Natalis's commentary on the Sentences


• 5: The `opinio singularis': the first recension of Durandus of St Pourcain's commentary on the Sentences


• 6: Hervaeus's quodlibetal disputations


• 7: Durandus's response: the Paris Quodlibets


• 8: The censure


• 9: The aftermath of the censure


• 10: The corrective


• 11: The second censure and the `Thomist turn'


• 12: The final recension of Durandus's commentary


• Conclusion: Durandus's enlightened conservatism